Created by: Humans Since 1982
Why we love it: Created especially for Design Days Dubai by Stockholm-based studio Humans Since 1983, A Million Times (Time Dubai) is an exploration of time and how we track its endless progress. The installation tells the time digitally using the hands of 288 analogue clocks, which spin into place to form the numbers. The piece can also be programmed to bespoke designs.
Where you can get it: Victor Hunt Designart Dealer
Created by: Marc Baroud & Marc Dibeh
Why we love it: The combination of steel rod with etched aluminium sheet and solid walnut timber is a study in the poetry of materials. The understated and raw beauty of the shelving unit by Lebanese designers Marc Baroud and Marc Dibeh is the kind of luxury that we like to see in collectible design. The shelf is part of a range of limited edition furniture by the duo that utilises that same language.
Where you can get it: Art Factum Gallery
Created by: Lucy McRae for Broached Commissions
Why we love it: Designed last year by Australian designer Lucy McRae for the inaugural Broached Commissions collection, Prickly Lamp was a favourite at Design Days Dubai with both visitors and local press. Made of 20,000 hand-dyed wooden sticks, the piece explores the experience of women in colonial Australia. We love that it has put Australian design on the map in the UAE.
Where you can get it: Broached Commissions
Created by: Aljoud Lootah
Why we love it: Emirati designer, Aljoud Lootah, created Unfolding Unity as part of the Design Road Professional initiative that aims to foster Middle Eastern design talent. The programme saw four Emirati designers develop projects from concept, and is a key step in establishing a local contemporary design scene in Dubai. The stool takes its starting point from simplicity and symmetry in production and, when viewed from above, forms a classic Arabesque motif.
Where you can get it: Niftee
Created by: Peter Collis
Why we love it: The Majlis Gallery was the first art gallery to open its doors in Dubai in 1989. To celebrate their inaugural participation in Design Days Dubai, the gallery presented an ethereal installation by New Zealand ceramicist, Peter Collis. The collection of crackle-glazed vessels, stunning in their simplicity, were accompanied by a series of ceramic bowls by Collis with ‘hidden’ poetry inscribed in their surfaces that could only be read in a certain light.
Where you can get it: Majlis Gallery
Created by: Khalid Shafar
Why we love it: Emirati designer, Khalid Shafar, had a host of work on show at Design Days Dubai, making him the driving force behind the establishment of a local design industry. His limited edition range of rugs for Tai Ping Carpets draws strongly on his Middle Eastern heritage. Inspired by traditional Talli embroidery, the three rugs brought a local flavour to the international fair.
Where you can get it: Tai Ping Carpets
Created by: Tashkeel
Why we love it: A Dubai institution, Tashkeel is a creative hub offering specialist studio facilities and a public gallery, and is heavily involved in a number of initiatives aimed at promoting design in the Middle East. Based on a workshop they held in November 2012, Tashkeel used Design Days Dubai as a platform to launch a guide on how to design Arabic fonts for beginners.
Where you can get it: Tashkeel
Created by: Egg Designs
Why we love it: The Rosette Sideboard by South African studio, Egg Designs, was one of the first pieces sold at Design Days Dubai by exhibiting gallery, Southern Guild. The steel flowers that cover the sideboard are based on an antique piece found at a steel merchant’s store in Mauritius. The sideboard showcases the artisanal beauty that characterises South African design.
Where you can get it: Southerrn Guild